Earth Day is a worthy celebration because, frankly, where would we be without it? In advance of Earth Day, which is April 22, you can join two different parties.

Milwaukee's Office of Environmental Sustainability and Rock the Green are hosting the second near-zero waste celebration from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at Milwaukee City Hall in the Market Street Corridor. It's free. | April 14, 2013»Read Full Article

Elizabeth Edwards calls her artworks "vanitas" paintings, a term normally associated with 17th-century still lifes, because she imbues them with metaphors of life and death.

Edwards is one of a long list of artists who call the Tory Folliard Gallery, one of the city's best galleries, home. The gallery, 233 N. Milwaukee St., will celebrate 25 years in business this weekend during Gallery Night & Day, the quarterly art crawl when galleries hold special events. Many of the artists in the gallery's stable, including some who go back to the very early years, will have work on view for the special anniversary show. | April 14, 2013»Read Full Article

The 20 vocalists of the Milwaukee Choral Artists and the group's founder and music director, Sharon Hansen, sang a fond musical farewell Saturday evening at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, bringing to an end the ensemble's 15-year history as one of the very few professional female vocal ensembles in the country. | April 14, 2013»Read Full Article

"Elippathayam," an award-winning film by Indian director Adoor Gopalakrishnan, will get a free screening at 7 p.m. Monday in the Lubar Auditorium at the Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N. Art Museum Drive.

Gopalakrishnan will be at the screening, which is tied to the creation of the Adoor Gopalakrishnan Film Archive and Research Fund at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. | April 14, 2013»Read Full Article

Spring cleaning

Milwaukee Riverkeeper is holding its big Spring River Cleanup Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon of the parkland surrounding the Milwaukee, Kinnickinnic and Menomonee rivers. The group is looking for volunteers to join - rain or shine - and will provide T-shirts, bags and gloves. It has posted a list of work sites at its website. Riverkeeper is asking people to register so it can have enough equipment available. | April 14, 2013»Read Full Article